By Macon Ramos Araneta

THE Sandiganbayan has affirmed the conviction on falsification charges of two former officials of the Mindanao State University for approving the payroll of some 200 ?ghost employees? in 1987 and 1988.

The graft court?s First Division junked separate motions for reconsideration filed by Bai Yasmin Macalandong, former MSU chancellor, and Mangcobay Bansuan, former personnel officer, both assigned at the Dinaig, Maguindanao, campus of the university.

Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo said the arguments raised by the defendants were a rehash of those overruled by the court in its Oct. 28, 2008 verdict sentencing them to prison terms of up to 10 years and a fine of P5,000 each.

?Macalandong and Bansuan?s separate motions for reconsideration are denied for lack of merit. The accused have failed to tender new arguments that would justify the reconsideration,? read the resolution which was concurred by Associate Justices Rodolfo Ponferrada and Norberto Geraldez, the division chairman.

Macalandong?s claim of having acted in good faith when she signed the payroll was junked by the court, noting that auditors brought the discrepancy to her attention in the 1987 and 1988 plantilla but she failed to act on them.

Likewise, her contention that the information did not sufficiently state her supposed offense was dismissed by the court as without merit.

?The Court agrees with the prosecution that it is already too late in the day to question such defect in the information,? said Gesmundo.

Trial records showed government auditors found 148 names in the 1987 plantilla submitted by MSU were not on the official list obtained from the Civil Service Commission.

In the 1988 plantilla, 48 ?ghost employees? were also discovered.

Even with this discovery, the non-existent employees collected salaries amounting to P3,663,714 in 1987 and P2,019,571 in 1988 based on MSU financial records.

The anti-graft court sustained the findings of Prosecutor Ma. Hazelina Tujan-Militante that the accused conspired to falsify the plantilla of MSU personnel for 1987 and 1988.